The City Inn: It's Mint, Innit?

Because of the very late finish of my radio show I stay three nights a week in London nowadays. I stay at the City Inn Hotel in John Islip Street, near Millbank Tower. It's really nice hotel, very modern and almost Scandinavian in its design, and despite being quite big has a real sense of personal service. They also have hotels in Leeds, Bristol, Manchester and Glasgow, with new ones opening in Amsterdam and near Tower Bridge in the new year.

But I have to say I was slightly horrified when they told me earlier this week that they were rebranding their hotels and in future they would be known as Mint Hotels. Why on earth would they change a brand which they had built up so successfully over 15 years? I've stayed in most of their hotels at one time or another and they really are a very different sort of small hotel chain - somehow they have built up a family feel. When you stay with them it's as if you belong to their family. So when I heard of the name change I just didn't get it. It was like you feel when your sister gets married and changes her name. I didn't like it.

But when I thought about it further I understood it. Perhaps there was a perception among some people that with the word 'Inn' in the name, people equated it with the Premier Inn or Holiday Inn chains. In this day and age, marketing in vitally important for any business, especially in the cutthroat hotel sector and you really need to transmit in your name, what you do (which is why my company is called Biteback!).

So as my friends at Mint Hotels enter a new era, I just wanted to wish them well and encourage my readers to try them out. They have a fantastic bar, the Millbank Lounge on the first floor and a superb restaurant, the City Cafe, which offers a 5 star menu at very reasonable prices. You get a Mac computer and TV in each room, and they don't charge for WiFi access. I have never understood why hotels charge £10-£15 a day for WiFi. It annoys the customer and after the initial installation it can't cost an awful lot to provide, and if it does, why not include it in the room rate? In fact, I invariably won't stay in a hotel nowadays which charges for WiFi. It just seems as if they are fleecing the customer.

I know this post reads like an advert, but I can promise you it isn't and no money has changed hands. You know me - if I don't like the service a company provides, I say so, but it's only fair that when I experience really good service I also say so.

Now, about that upgrade...